Breast Cancer Treatment in the Elderly
More people are surviving to old age than ever before. In the elderly, cancer is a quite common occurrence; only the circulatory diseases are seen more frequently. One type of cancer, breast cancer, frequently occurs in elderly women. Currently, there is some controversy over how the elderly breast cancer patient should be managed.
In the next several decades, the number of older persons in the United States is expected to double in size (7:2507). By the year 2030, over 65 million Americans, or one in five, will be 65 years of age or older. Furthermore, even within this population of seniors, significant age shifts will occur. In general, the old will become older: by the year 2000, almost 48% of the elderly will be over 75 years of age. It is within this group that cancer strikes most often. In 1991, an estimated 7 million new cases were diagnosed. Fifty five percent of these malignancies occurred in people over the age of 65 (7:2502, 2507). Such circumstances make it imperative that the association between cancer therapies and advanced age be firmly delineated (3:2358).
In elderly women, the most common malignancy is cancer of the breast. It is estimated that as many as one out of eight women will develop breast cancer during her lifetime (5:107). Of this population, the tumor will be fatal in about thirty percent. Moreover, as a woman's age increases, the probability that she will develop breast cancer also increases. According to Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results data, the incidence of breast cancer is 212 per 100,000 in women between the ages of 50 and 54. In contrast, in women aged 80 to 84 years, the incidence climbs to 435 per 100,000 (5:107). It is estimated that, each year, breast cancer kills approximately 10,000 women over the age of 75 (2:655).
In general, tumors discovered early in the elderly can be operated on with good result. Still thoug...